On Vacation

Just in case anyone is wondering where I am this week, I took the week off to look for jobs, and to use up some time (use it or lose it, y'know).

So, I probably won't have any posts this week. Stay tuned...I'll be back next week.

Frost and Feet

Brrr! It was -9*F overnight, -7 when I got to work. The frost had made beautiful pictures on the porch windows.

The trees looked like rock candy on a stick:

And the birdbath was steaming away. I watched a bluejay land on the post earlier, then hop down to the edge of the bath to get a drink. I'm glad I invested in this heated treat for the birds. Even though I don't often see a bird at the bath, I know they use it. It's gotta be better than eating snow for moisture!

I had my first official tracking class of the winter today, and it couldn't have been nicer weatherwise. The cold of the morning had worn off and conditions were great. I had 14 participants (!), and they were a great group, some local and one couple who drove over four hours this morning to get here before 10:00!

Most of our tracks today were squirrel, hare, mouse, fox and coyote. Overall, nothing too exciting, but the tracks were all very nice. Here is a typical example of what we saw - a nice series of snowshoe hare tracks that tell a story:

You can see where the hare came along, slowed down and stopped. It sat for a moment, hopped again, and stopped, perhaps to nibble on some twigs (we did find some nice hare browse in another location with similar tracks). Then it hopped off once more, and gathered speed (the tracks stretched out) before stopping again (off the photo).

Here we had a really nice set of snowshoe hare tracks. The animal hopped and stopped, sitting with its front feet in front. Note how widely the toes are spread on those back feet!

These coyote tracks that passed under the bridge, crossing from Graveyard Bay to the outlet of Rich Lake, were a pretty nifty find. At first I was trying to describe the set on the right: the animal possibly loping and then galloping. But in some of the sets, there looked like five or six footprints, not just four. Something odd was going on. Then one of the participants piped up: didn't you say that the coyotes often travel one behind the other? Couldn't this be multiple animals loping/galloping and they just aren't quite in synch? By golly, she was right.

Then we took a closer look at the trotting tracks to the left. They are nice and neat, but about every third one is doubled: two footprints. Again, we believe this was multiple animals, and one wasn't quite on target with the tracks of the first.

My next tracking class for the public is 27 February, 1:00 - 2:30 PM. Meanwhile, my school tracking programs start in two weeks. I've had a chance to brush up now, so I'm ready to begin the Snow Patrol season.

A Cheshire Moon

The waxing crescent moon last night looked to me like the Cheshire Cat's grin after the cat had vanished.

It was a gloriously clear night, with Orion resting above the trees, Betelgeuse red on his shoulder and Sirius glowing brightly beyond his feet. I didn't have my remote shutter release with me, though, so my star photos didn't turn out. Tonight's supposed to be clear, though, so perhaps I'll give it another go.

Frigid Friday - The Weekend Weather Report

The Weather for Newcomb, NY

Friday, 22 January - Sunday, 24 January 2010

Friday: Sunny, with a high near 30*F and a low of -5*F tonight. Calm wind becoming east around 5mph.

Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 32*F and a low around 1*F. Wind chills during the day predicted at -2*F.

Sunday: A 30% chance of snow before 1 PM, then a chance of rain. Cloudy with a high near 37*F and a low around 35*F. Calm wind becoming SW between 10 and 13 mph, with gusts to 24 mph. By night the chance of precipitation (rain) rises to 90%, up to one inch possible.

*** The weather is subject to change without notice ***

Snow conditions at the VIC as of 10:00 AM on Friday:

Trails are well packed and we are holding steady at about 14" at the snowstick. We had about 1.5" of new and very fluffy snow earlier in the week, but this has since been packed down. Skiing is probably fast, due to packed nature of trails here and at Santanoni. Snowshoes are still required, regardless of how well-packed the trails are.

I Never Listen to Myself

I woke to a beautiful morning - the sun was rising, the sky was blue. I couldn't wait to walk the dog. While putting on my coat and getting Toby leashed up, I said to myself "take the camera - you'll regret it if you don't." And I answered myself "the last several times I've taken it, I haven't used it." So, I left it home. And of course, we found some great tracks. So, Toby got a very short walk, as I dashed back home, fed the dog, and headed off to work early, camera in hand to stop and photograph the tracks we encountered.

The first thing one might think when seeing these tracks is that a fox came along, gathered itself up and then jumped up on the snowbank.


A closer look should give you pause, however. Are these really fox tracks?



Consider: are there any claw marks? Is the overall shape of the track round or oval? Does the negative space between the toes and the footpad form an "X" or an "H", or is it more curved? The answers are no, round, and curved. This was a cat. We have had a bumper crop of feral cats this year, thanks to some neighbors, and many patrol the neighborhood. It's no surprise at all that Fluffy would be hunting up along this area, for it is now a field (of sorts) and no doubt great hunting for mice and voles.

Oops! The deer came bounding over the snowbank and woo-hoo! There's ice under that snow and deer don't really have non-skid pads on their feet.

A nice straight line of nice neat footprints - could only be a wild canid (unless it was a deer, and there's no way these are deer tracks). The feet were small, so it must be a fox.

Looking closely at the footprints in this trail, you can see claw marks, which gives us a clue that this is not a cat.

This next set of photos (three) are of a great set of tracks, which I'm not 100% sure I've deciphered. Here's my story: a grey fox came trotting along from the bottom left side of the photo. Then "something" happened, after which the fox lept forward, then turned and rapidly left the scene.

Looking closely at the "something," we see definite footprints, then what looks like feet skidding left and right on the ice.

A real close look at the "something" shows that this fox left a couple drops of urine behind. Yes, I got down on my belly and took a sniff; I couldn't detect a thing (a clue that it wasn't a red fox); this combined with the fact that I've only ever seen grey foxes in this area, tells me that these are grey fox tracks. Like the fox tracks from Vince's class, the urine drops are placed behind the feet, which says that this was a female. Was she just marking her territory and then slipped on the ice? I saw nothing that suggested this was two foxes and that mating took place (besides, it is still a bit early for foxes to be breeding, although they may be forming up pairs now - there were certainly plenty of tracks in the area, so there could be a potential mate hanging around).

Oops! There's ice underneath that snow!

This next pair of photos show a couple important characteristics of grey fox tracks. With the front foot, the negative space between the toes and footpad forms an "H"...

...whereas on the hind foot, this same space forms an "X":

On red foxes and coyotes, both feet would show an "X" in this negative space.


Last weekend while leading a tracking walk on the VIC trails, I was asked where all the scat was. We rarely see scats on our trails, so when I do find some, I'm always very excited. When I saw a dark spot on the snow this morning, I was thrilled - it had to be a scat. Sure enough, there it was: a nice tidy scat pile, left by the fox. Full of hairs, the ends tapered and twisted - no doubt at all who left it.

I loved this pair of tracks. We have a fox going left, and a cat going right. But, to the undiscerning eye, this is a strange animal that walks with extremely pronated feet.

Tales from the Crypt

Yesterday I thought I'd do a tour of the basement at home and blog about the life I found there in the middle of winter. Unfortunately, the only signs of life were the onions that had sprouted:

Everything else was dead and dessicated.

The remains of a mouse lay out in the middle of the floor. At first I thought it was an owl pellet, due to the compact grey form and the bones, but, of course, there's no way for an owl to have been in (and survived) my basement. Nope, this mouse just up and died. Starvation? With the potatoes and onions stored down there?

A second mouse bit the dust.

Did the cold kill this spider? It couldn't have starved to death - look at all its catches.

All around the windows and walls assorted insects, spiders and goodness knows what all else provided decor.

I guess my basement isn't a safe haven in the winter.

Shameless Advertising

If you are interested in learning some tracking techniques, and if you are willing to travel to Newcomb, I will be teaching "Tracking 101 for Adults" on Saturday, 23 January 2010.

The program begins at 1:00 PM. We'll be indoors for the first part of the program, learning footprint and gait patterns, scat ID, et al. These are the basics you need to get you prepared to identify what you see.

Then we'll strap on snowshoes and hit the trail. At the moment there are lots of great tracks on our property, so hopefully this will continue through next weekend.

Bring water with you, and a snack, but be sure to eat your lunch before you come. And you'll want to bring appropriate outdoor gear (hats, fleeces, mittens, etc.), although we have snowshoes to lend if you need them.

If you want to come and play with us, give us a call - program is pre-registration. Our number is 518-582-2000.